Hari Om!
Dear Parents,
Please find the recap of our class on Friday, Nov 20, 2020.
- Opening prayers: Om Sahana Vavatu , Vasudevasutam Devam (Krishna Shloka)
- Quote of the day: Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.
- Lessons: Excerpts from Virata Parva and Bhishma Parva
- Bhagavat Gita: Ch. 2 Verses 5-6 ( repeated from last class)
- Closing Prayers: Purnamadah
- Next Balavihar class: 12/04/20
- Announcement: The next e-Balavihar will be on 11/27/2020. Happy Thanksgiving!
Virata Parva: Pandavas went to live in disguise in Virata's kingdom. Yudhisthira, disguised himself as a brahmin, by the name Kanaka, the gambler, Bhima, who loved to eat became Vallala, the cook. Arjuna disguised himself as a woman, Brihannala, would teach music and dance to the women of the palace, Draupadi, became queen Sudhekshan's maid, and was called Sairandhri. The twins, Nakula and Sahadeva decided to serve as stable hand and cowherd, were known as Damagranthi and Tantripala, respectively.
Keechaka, commander-in-chief of the Virata army and brother-in-law to king Virata, fell for Draupadi's beauty, and insisted on marrying her, and continued to harassed her inspite of Draupadi's attempts to discourage him by telling him about the five ghandarvas who protected her. Bheema comes her rescue and fights Keechaka fiercely putting him to bed. We shared some interesting facts about the fate of five great warriors who were born in the same cosmic phase as Bheema – the first amongst the five to kill the another will eventually kill the rest of the,.
Further, we talked about the last day of the Pandavas incognito year (agnatha vasa). Keechaka, the warrior being dead, how Susarama, attacked King Virata, how Duryodhana, and Kauravas helped him, how Pandavas, on their last day in disguise challenged Susarama, and held him as hostage, and later released him. On the other hand, Prince Uttara, son of Virata, a boaster, but not brave with the help of Brihannala (Arjuna in disguise) as charioteer, exchanged his role with Brihannala went to fight with Kauravas, Brihannala (Arjuna) single-handedly won the battle, and recovered the cattle for the cowherds of Virata kingdom. Pandavas revealed their identity after, and Virata welcomed them with glory. On the request of Arjuna, Virata's daughter was married to Abhimanyu, with a big celebration.
The Pandavas, returned claiming their kingdom back, but Duryodhana refused to give their share, or atleast five villages, they had requested. Drona, Bhisma, and finally Lord Krishna pleaded for peace and reconciliation, but Duryodhana would not yield, thus the war became inevitable. Duryodhana and Arjuna went to seek the help of Sri Krishna, the king of Dwaraka. As Krishna saw Arjuna first a when he opened his eyes, he was given the first choice, who asked for Krishna, alone, thus Krishna became the charioteer of Arjuna during the Kurukshetra war, whereas Duryodhana asked for Krishna's army and was granted to him.
We then discussed few episodes from Bhishma parva how Lord Sri Krishna imparted Bhagavadgita to Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra reminding him of his duty to fight Adharma along with explaining the goal of human's life and how to achieve the goal. We briefly went over the story of how Bheeshma revealed the secret of his death to Pandavas. With this information, Pandavas puts Shikhandi (Amba who was born as a transgender figure with a goal to kill Bheeshma) in front of Bheeshma who then abandons his weapons. Arjuna pierces several arrows through Bheeshma's body. Bheeshma falls to the ground resting on the bed of arrows waiting for an auspicious time to leave the body. We touched on few incidents from Kurukshetra war such as Abhimanyu's death, Duryodhan and his brother's losing lives at the end also Upa pandandava's murder by Ashwathama etc to highlight some key learnings:
- Evil mind brings Disaster!
- It is not Dharma to harass anyone against their wishes, It's how one meets his/ her consequence, if Dharma is not followed.
- Greed breeds disaster. Grab an opportunity for peace. Be on the side of Krishna!
- Yato Dharmah, Tato Jayah! Where there is dharma, there is victory!
We had a very engaging discussion on the 'quote of the day'. We were able to relate the quote to several situations in the kid's d2d life such as tests/grades; sports/result etc.
We then learnt the Bhagavadgita shlokas from Swamiji's recordings and ended the class with closing prayers and pledge
Regards,
Mythili and Anandi
